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STRUCTURAL CHANGES MANIFESTED BY SERTOLI CELLS DURING EXPERIMENTAL ALLERGIC ORCHITIS IN GUINEA-PIGS

Experimental allergic orchitis is an organ-specific disorder, which is immunologically mediated, but interpretations of histopathological and immunological studies of the temporal sequence of events leading to aspermatogenesis still remain controversial. Some authors have held that degeneration of germinal cells of the testis is the predominant change which results in aspermatogenesis (Freund, Lipton & Thompson, 1953; Freund, Thompson & Lipton, 1955). On the other hand, destruction of the germinal epithelium has been described following the appearance of early mononuclear infiltrates in the intertubular space with direct invasion of the seminiferous tubules (Waksman, 1959), and the route of sperm passage through the rete testis, the ductulis efferentes and the caput epididymidis (Brown, Glynn & Holborow, 1963; Brown & Glynn, 1969; Johnson, 1970). Tung, Unanue & Dixon (1970) postulated that mononuclear cells can break through the basement membrane and penetrate into the seminiferous tubules. Infarction, oedema and ischaemia have all been causally related